Racial discrimination? Know your rights!
Race Discrimination
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The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) was a landmark in Australian race relations. It was a legislative expression of a new commitment to multiculturalism and it reflected the ratification by Australia of the International Covention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act, the Australian Human Rights Commission developed resources aimed at raising awareness about the Act and how it can be used to protect against racial discrimination and vilification.
The resources include an educational video, accompanying PowerPoint presentation, poster and postcard. If you want hard copies of the poster and postcards please contact us at publications@humanrights.gov.au
For more information see: https://www.humanrights.gov.au/rda-info
Transcript
My day at school probably pretty much started out like yours
Had English in the morning, a Maths test. Then played soccer with some mates
I scored a goal!
Only ... one of the guys on the other team screamed at me called me
really nasty names like, he called me a black monkey
it had nothing to do with soccer and everything to do with the colour of my skin
That's not on!
And it's not even legal
You can't go around trashing people because of their race
A teacher was watching and pulled him up over it
We're all going to have a lesson on racism and what to do about it
Oh and that guy - he's busted Two weeks detention, and he's out of the team
That's a Red Card for racism.
* I probably use my computer pretty much like you do
check the news catch up on what friends are doing waste some time on Facebook
Only this one time I went on this website and there
was all this stuff written about how bad Aboriginal people were...
horrible, racist stuff and then there were comments from other people
on the site saying nasty things about Aboriginal people too
It got worse and worse the more I read and it really hurt
cause, you know - I'm Aboriginal - it's personal
So I stopped reading, and I started writing I googled what to do, and who can help
I asked around And most people had the same advice
Make a complaint with the Human Rights Commission.
So I did.
Turns out I wasn't the only one complaining about the site
They were told they had to remove all the offensive material
And it's gone
So no one else had to read what I had to.
'Cause it's just not OK to discriminate
And thanks to the Racial Discrimination Act
We can all do something about it
* My day probably started out pretty much like yours got up, brushed my teeth
ate breakfast and headed off to do the shopping
only, when I got to the bus-stop the bus driver wouldn't let me on!
She said "We've had troubles with your sort before"
and then she just drove off!
I was totally confused
"My sort?" what was she talking about?
"My sort" is middle-aged, mother of three,
who likes spicy food. Oh, and I'm from China.
She didn't like where I'm from, so she wouldn't let me on the bus?
That's just wrong.
And - it's against the law.
It's called the Racial Discrimination Act
She might not know that. But I do.
So I contacted the Human Rights Commission and made a complaint.
They spoke to the bus company. And listened to both sides of the story.
The driver agreed to call me and apologise for what had happened.
Plus their company is going to run some training, to make sure their drivers understand about
the law.
So it won't happen again.
And if it does, I know who to call.
Speaking up is better than being silent.
[ends]
